S.C.O.A. MOTORS, ACCRA v. KORANTENG

JUDGMENT OF AZU CRABBE J. A.

This is an appeal against the judgment of Acolatse J. whereby £G30 damages together with 150 guineas costs were awarded in favour of the plaintiff against the defendant company in an action [p.265] for wrongful dismissal. The following statement of the facts of the case is taken from the judgment of the trial court:

"The plaintiff is a comparatively young man of 34 years who has been unemployed since 31 May 1961 upon his dismissal from the service of the defendant company.

The plaintiff was originally employed in the service of the company in 1949 at Nsawam as a debit clerk. He was transferred to Accra in the same position as a debit clerk by the company in 1958 until his dismissal at a salary of £G30 a month. The plaintiff's duty at the time of his service with the company was to prepare debit notes and invoices and extensions for the defendant's tyre stores at Kumasi, Takoradi and Accra.

It appeared that the plaintiff discharged his duties diligently and had the confidence of his superior officers. However, in November 1960 a shortage was detected in the tyre store in Accra kept by the company's storekeeper, I. K. Kwetey.

There had been discovered in the plaintiff's books certain errors and the manager, Mr. Platnic, questioned the plaintiff about those errors in the invoices and debit notes concerning the Accra tyre store kept by Kwetey. The plaintiff was suspected of having conspired with the storekeeper to defraud the company by deliberately causing alterations in the cost price and the selling price on the invoices and yet leaving the grand totals intact. The plaintiff denied the allegation of conspiracy with the storekeeper to steal the amount alleged in the shortages against the storekeeper. The plaintiff, however, insisted that the errors in the books were genuine and not deliberately done in concert with the storekeeper in connection with the shortages in the Accra store and that he corrected the debit notes putting in the correct figures upon Mr. Platnic's instruction to do so.

The defendant company reported the matter of the shortages against the storekeeper to the police. The police on 31 January 1961 searched the plaintiff's premises and found six sheets of paper containing names of the storekeeper's credit customers. The first five sheets were written by the storekeeper. The sixth was written by the plaintiff who alleged he wrote the names down on instruction of the storekeeper for the storekeeper's own us